Delegates at Fórsa’s Education conference in Portlaoise backed a conference motion calling for an increase in funding to combat the continuing rise in young people presenting with mental health challenges.

The motion was proposed by Fórsa’s School Completion branch. The School Completion Programme (SCP) provides support to young people at risk of early school leaving, or educational disadvantage, in mainly DEIS primary and post-primary schools.

Speaking in Portlaoise the SCP branch chair, James Kavanagh, said the mental health supports in place across schools are insufficient to cope with current and rising demand: “On a day-to-day basis we can see a huge increase in students availing of the supports available to them through the SCP.

“Our capacity to facilitate mental health supports is already strained. There been many younger students presenting with mental health challenges. It’s a growing problem, and we need to be able to provide more support,” he said.

The union will now call for an increase in funding to combat the continuing rise in the number of young people presenting with mental health challenges.

Jen Cummins, an SCP member working in Ballymun, said the current budget for mental health supports is not enough: “Unfortunately, there is a cap on our budget to be able to support our students with things like art and play therapy. The current budget is just not enough — it’s like a drop in the ocean.

“We need to ensure that all young people are getting a fair and equitable allocation of supports.”

She said that there has been an increase in the number of students referred to the school completion programme: “What we’re finding though, is not only is there an increase, but there is also an increase in the complexity in the level of need that has been presented.

“For example, in the past, it might have just been one issue why they’ve been referred. Years and years ago when I first started this job, sometimes the programme was for children whose mom and dad didn’t finish school.

“We still have children in our project who are the first in their family to do the Junior Cert or the Leaving Cert, and I know it’s 2023 so people find that really hard to believe, but genuinely this is the case.

"But we also have young people who have very complex needs, and that means that they’ve experienced adverse childhood experiences.”

SCP worker Cáit Ní Mhurcú highlighted a growing and observable increase in school-refusal behaviour at junior cycle level in secondary schools. She told delegates id the response to these necessitated additional resources for therapeutic interventions.

She said school refusal over the years has been on the increase but school refusal now is very challenging: “When we have young people who school refuse, they need psychological support.”

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